One of the neat things you can do with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 is you can customize it to show or hide screens when running through the deployment wizard.

Lets have a look at my customsettings.ini file, the file is found in the Control folder. This file is on my memory stick and installs my Patron computer builds. What I do is block all pages except the computer name field. I manually enter the computer name and I am off to the races. It also will give me the final summary letting me know if everything worked or not.

[Settings]

Priority=Default

Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]

OSInstall=YES

SkipAdminPassword=YES

SkipApplications=YES

SkipAppsOnUpgrade=YES

SkipBDDWelcome=YES

SkipBitLocker=YES

SkipCapture=YES

SkipComputerName=No

SkipComputerBackup=YES

SkipDeploymentType=YES

DeploymentType=NEWCOMPUTER

SkipDomainMembership=YES

JoinDomain=yourdomain.local

DomainAdmin=Deployment_Account

DomainAdminDomain=yourdomain

DomainAdminPassword=Pa$$w0rd

SkipFinalSummary=No

SkipLocaleSelection=YES

KeyboardLocale=en-US

UserLocale=en-US

UILanguage=en-US

SkipPackageDisplay=YES

SkipProductKey=YES

SkipSummary=YES

SkipTaskSequence=YES

TaskSequenceID=VISTAPATRON

SkipTimeZone=Yes

TimeZone=035

TimeZoneName=Eastern Standard Time

SkipUserData=Yes

In order for this to work properly, we need ensure we modified our task sequences to install software we want installed. We also need to ensure when setting up the task sequence we entered in a license key (if needed) and the admin password.

I’ll be covering these customizations of a few blog posts. I am also going to be creating some instructional podcasts around MDT as well, so this could be included in that.

For more information on this as well, check out fellow MVP Mitch Tulloch’s posts on the subject at http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Deploying-Windows-7-Part7.html. He has a whole series dedicated to Windows 7 Deployment.